Sunday, February 22, 2009

Egypt: Strike against fertiliser export to Israel

Green Left - AustraliaFebruary 21, 2009

This Egyptian strike action follows the successful actions of South African dockworkers, whose refusal to move Israeli goods resulted on February 6 in a ship carrying Israeli goods being unable to offload its cargo.

***In an unprecedented action, the first following the recent Israeli war on Gaza, workers of the Egyptian Fertilisers Company in Suez protested on February 7 against the export of fertilisers to Israel.

The company signed an agreement to export 1000 tons of phosphate fertilisers to Israel, at a rate of 100 tons per week.

Two days prior to the protest, workers were surprised by a request from the management to process an order of unmarked bags that will be transported by Jordanian trucks to an undisclosed location.

As a result, about 100 workers went on strike and refused to process the order because they believed, rightly, that the cargo would travel to Israel.

When the management learned about the situation, they broke the strike by threatening the workers of dismissal and deducted 15 days of pay from all workers at the company.